Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 10:51:27 -0500
To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
Subject: Ashcroft On Why Secret Arrests Protect Privacy
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

Date:  Tue, 27 Nov 2001 07:27:01 -0800
From: MichaelP <papadop@PEAK.ORG>
Subject:      Ashcroft Backs Attacks Probe Decision (fwd)

I'm keeping a look out for statements of outrage about this outrageous story :

  - I have imagined memories of Pinochet flacks refusing to give out the
names of those contained in football stadiums on their way to ultimate
disappearance etc:

  In days of yore the U$ Supreme Court held that "identification of those
held by the government is rooted in the Founding Fathers' concern that the
U.S. not replicate the Court of Star Chamber." Ashcroft's statement that
the privacy interests of the detainee are served by keeping their names
secret turns this principle on its head.

What's interesting about this story is that I haven't found any but the
Associated Press story - except that the Guardian web page includes both
a short version and the longer more detailed version shown below.

Cheers for free news
MichaelP

Ashcroft Backs Attacks Probe Decision

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-1343369,00.html

Tuesday November 27, 2001 8:00 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The names of people detained by authorities since the
Sept. 11 attacks won't be released because it could violate their privacy,
Attorney General John Ashcroft says.

"I'm not going to develop some sort of blacklist," Ashcroft said Monday,
adding that releasing the names could help Osama bin Laden by providing
information about his followers who are still at large.

His remarks Monday prompted complaints from civil rights groups who have
urged the Justice Department to disclose more information about the
1,100-plus people detained or arrested in the terrorism investigation.

"It is ironic that the government is now concerned about rights when it
has arrested and jailed hundreds of people without giving the American
public any proof that the detainees are being treated fairly and
consistent with the protections of the Constitution and Bill of Rights,"
said Lucas Guttentag, head of the American Civil Liberties Union's
immigration rights project.

Ashcroft's refusal came as the terrorism investigation advanced overseas
and a federal agent in Virginia described a possible motive for one of the
19 hijackers on Sept. 11. FBI Special Agent Jesus Gomez said suspected
terrorist ringleader Mohammed Atta blamed the United States for most of
the world's wars.

"Atta felt that the U.S. was responsible for most of the wars being fought
in the world," Gomez said during an abbreviated preliminary hearing in
Alexandria, Va., federal court for Agus Budiman, an Indonesian man whom
prosecutors believe was a close associate of Atta.

Budiman, 31, had contacts with Atta and another hijacker, Marwan
al-Shehhi, Gomez told a judge at Budiman's detention hearing. The agent
did not specify how he learned of Atta's beliefs about America.

Budiman also was associated with Ramsi Binalshibh, who the FBI says was
meant to be the 20th hijacker. Binalshibh twice tried unsuccessfully to
use his association with Budiman as a means to enter the United States,
Gomez said.

Binalshibh, a Yemeni citizen who had been living in Hamburg, is the
subject of an international manhunt.

Budiman is facing document fraud charges unrelated to Sept. 11, but
prosecutors suspect that the man Budiman allegedly helped to obtain a fake
Virginia ID card, Mohammad Bin Nasser Belfas, is a contact for bin Laden,
suspected of directing the terror attacks.

Budiman's court-appointed attorney disqualified himself after Gomez
testified about the man's links to the terrorists. The lawyer, a retired
Army officer, said he had friends who died Sept. 11 when hijackers crashed
an American Airlines jet into the Pentagon.

Ivan Yacub, Budiman's immigration lawyer, said his client only knew Atta
casually and had not seen Atta since he came to the United States in
October 2000.

Most of the more than 1,100 people arrested or detained by federal or
state authorities are being held on immigration violations; others are
charged with unrelated criminal offenses or are being held as material
witnesses.

Civil liberties groups and members of Congress have asked the Justice
Department to disclose information about the detainees, where they are
being held and whether they have been released. The department has
demurred, citing grand jury rules, judges' orders and privacy concerns.

Ashcroft has never publicly cited privacy rights until now.

"The law properly prevents the department from creating a public blacklist
of detainees that would violate their rights," Ashcroft said.

Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said some of the detainees are
believed to have possible terrorist connections, but they will have been
unfairly labeled if their names are released and they are eventually
cleared.

Ashcroft said no one has been detained who has not violated some federal
law, and no detainee has been denied the right to contact a lawyer. "They
are not being held in secret," he said.

Providing a complete list of the detainees, Ashcroft said, also might be
helpful to bin Laden.

The Justice Department is preparing an updated accounting of the numbers
of those who have been detained for immigration violations and on federal
charges and will release it later this week, Ashcroft said. But names will
not be provided.



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